Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
Connecting to the Music Life of Europe (1904–1906)
1905 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE 9 August - Last day of the competition. After the competition he gives his mother an indignant account of unsuccess (despite not having expected anything else if we consider his declaration of 24 May), of the jury’s incompetence and bad collateral factors. At the competition for composers he presented Rhapsody and - instead of the ‘unlearnable” Piano Quintet - the Sonata for Violin with violinist Zeitlin. He had greater success with the audience; his landlady, Mme Condat decreased the rent of his room in consolation from 9 to 7 francs. - Lajos Dietl, the Hungarian jury member remains in Paris 6 days longer and shows Bartok around. 15 August - He is somewhat calmer, and writes a postcard to Kálmán Harsányi in Rákospalota and letters to his mother in Szilad Puszta and Irmy Jurkovics in Nagyszentmiklós. In the two letters he describes his experiences in detail, the Paris buildings, museums, and nightclubs. “An awful lot of automobiles keep speeding about, so much so that at times the street is practically stinking of the great amount of petrol fume.” He is bumping into Hungarian aspects at every turn, he is glad seeing Hungarian newspapers being sold everywhere, while no Czech, Polish, Romanian, Croatian or Serbian ones are in sight anywhere. - To Irmy Jurkovics he writes an essay about the Hungarian upper classes which are not truly Hungarian. “True Hungarian music can come into existence only when there will be real Hungarian upper classes. For that very reason there’s nothing to do about the Budapest audience. ... We should rather educate the (Hungarian) countryside.... Work, study, and a third time again work, study. This is how we can achieve something.” 19 August - From the top of the Eiffel Tower he writes a postcard with a funny poem to his sister in Szilad. 22 August - Writing his mother in Szilad, he asks that she send him 200 forints from his (Bartok’s) savings, because he is running out of money. He describes his difficulties learning French, although he is instructed by a language teacher. 82
